RVC, Rockford airport break ground on aviation training center

ROCKFORD — A host of elected officials helped Rock Valley College President Mike Mastroianni and Chicago Rockford International Airport Director Mike Dunn break ground today on a 40,000-square-foot education and training center for the college’s aviation maintenance program.

Rock Valley leaders pledged last summer to expand the school’s two-year aviation maintenance program to provide more aviation mechanics for local employers. The expansion will also help attract what airport leaders have long sought: a mammoth jet service and repair center that could employ hundreds of mechanics.

The $5.1 million facility is quadruple the size of a Falcon Road hangar that houses the aviation maintenance program.

Scandroli Construction was the low bidder, $1.9 million, for the first phase of construction. The facility will be ready to accommodate students in August 2015.